The story of Cinderella is probably one of the most widely told fairy tales in the world. The Chinese tales “Yeh Hsien” (葉限) recorded in
Youyang Zazu
(
酉陽雜俎
,
The Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang
...), dating back to ninth-century China, is one of the oldest Cinderella tales. Based on a comparative reading of the stories of Chinese “Yeh Hsien,” Charles Perrault’s “Cendrillon ou la petite pantouffle de verre” in his
Contes de ma mère l'Oye
(1697), and the German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s “Aschenputtel” in their
Kinder und Hausmärchen
(1812), this paper seeks to highlight both common patterns and intrinsic differences between these stories, and to cast some light on what lies behind these similarities and differences.
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) is an immensely popular author of numerous science fictions and fantasy classics. A number of critics have noticed the influence of Taoism on Le Guin's writing.critical ...insights offered by Translation Studies and Walter Benjamin's comments on storytelling and translation, this paper argues that storytelling and translation are similar discursive practices that aim at the exchange of experiences, creating knowledge, and shaping culture. Taking Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven (1971) as a case study, this paper delves into how her storytelling serves as a unique form of translation, bridging the thought of ancient Chinese Taoist sages to narratives and fantasies that resonate with contemporary English readers. More specifically, the paper examines how Le Guin utilizes her protagonist's passivity to embody Lao Tsu's philosophy of non-action. This exploration aims to shed light on the complex relationship between storytelling and translation, emphasizing their importance in shaping our perceptions, broadening our horizons, and fostering a more interconnected global landscape of ideas and narratives.
With the development of Descriptive Translation Studies (e.g. Even-Zohar, 1978; Toury, 1995), and more importantly, with the ‘cultural turn’ and the subsequent ‘power turn’ in Translation Studies ...(e.g. Bassnett and Lefevere, 1990; Tymoczko and Gentzler, 2002), it is now generally recognized that translation is not a mere linguistic phenomenon, but a complex social and political process involving competing values and ideologies. This thesis aims at presenting a manifold and multifaceted vision of literary translation in contemporary China, while at the same time, remaining critically aware of our own positions and perspectives. Derived from the researcher’s personal experiences in and observation of China’s highly politicised literary milieu, the current study of literary translation is carried out from two different perspectives. The first is related to the social and political dimension of translation, which is concerned with the general context of translation, translation practices, literary norms as well as the structures that support them. The second perspective focuses on the more personal dimension, which is influenced by personalities and dispositions of the individuals involved in translation. Moving along the spectrum with political coercion and pressure on one end and personal decisions and responsibilities on the other, this thesis asserts that the political and the personal are two sharply different yet intimately intertwined domains of translation. In conclusion, it is recommended that future research should place greater emphasis on the dialectical relationship between lived personal experience and structural power relations in translation. This emphasis, as is demonstrated in this thesis, will provide a base for us to recognize the centrality of human agency and the possibility of resistance through translation, to understand translation as a site of power struggle and potential change, and finally, to strive for translation research and practice that is more socially relevant and personally meaningful.
With the development of Descriptive Translation Studies (e.g. Even-Zohar, 1978; Toury, 1995), and more importantly, with the ‘cultural turn’ and the subsequent ‘power turn’ in Translation Studies ...(e.g. Bassnett and Lefevere, 1990; Tymoczko and Gentzler, 2002), it is now generally recognized that translation is not a mere linguistic phenomenon, but a complex social and political process involving competing values and ideologies. This thesis aims at presenting a manifold and multifaceted vision of literary translation in contemporary China, while at the same time, remaining critically aware of our own positions and perspectives. Derived from the researcher’s personal experiences in and observation of China’s highly politicised literary milieu, the current study of literary translation is carried out from two different perspectives. The first is related to the social and political dimension of translation, which is concerned with the general context of translation, translation practices, literary norms as well as the structures that support them. The second perspective focuses on the more personal dimension, which is influenced by personalities and dispositions of the individuals involved in translation. Moving along the spectrum with political coercion and pressure on one end and personal decisions and responsibilities on the other, this thesis asserts that the political and the personal are two sharply different yet intimately intertwined domains of translation. In conclusion, it is recommended that future research should place greater emphasis on the dialectical relationship between lived personal experience and structural power relations in translation. This emphasis, as is demonstrated in this thesis, will provide a base for us to recognize the centrality of human agency and the possibility of resistance through translation, to understand translation as a site of power struggle and potential change, and finally, to strive for translation research and practice that is more socially relevant and personally meaningful.
The correspondence of a sensory object to the category of a descriptive statement requires a reflexive-identity of the object, and such a reflexive-identity is primarily based on the cognition of ...spatiality. Spatiality is, however, constituted through visual perception. There are only two occasions on which definitive reflexive-identity is exemplified: the infinitesimal point and the infinite “One,” and others are just human stipulations that meet pragmatic needs of rough identification of things at hand. However, if a spatial point is not different from any so-called “other” spatial point, to validate the reflexive identity of any spatial point implies a validation of the reflexive identity of all spatial points. Thus, as “one” and “many” here become absolutely unitary, the infinitely small and the infinitely immense are identical.
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